Does philosophical knowledge presuppose a moral attitude?
A discussion of Max Scheler’s metaphilosophical thesis
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.4454/philinq.v10i1.391Keywords:
Max Scheler, phenomenological metaphilosophy, scientific attitude, metaphysics, humility, virtue, essence, Platonism, loveAbstract
This paper explores Max Scheler’s metaphilosophical views. In particular, the paper seeks to reconstruct and assess Scheler’s thesis according to which philosophical knowledge presupposes a moral attitude which he describes as an “act of upsurge” on the part of the whole person of the philosopher toward the essential, an act which cannot be found in either the natural worldview or the sciences. After motivating the topic in the introduction (section 1), the paper explores how Scheler approaches the question about the nature of philosophy by focusing on the type of person of the philosopher (section 2). It then examines Scheler’s claim according to which philosophy is fundamentally distinct from the sciences (section 3), before exploring the moral attitude of the philosopher by examining three of its conditions: love, self-humbling, and self-mastery (section 4). The paper presents some challenges and objections against Scheler’s metaphilosophical thesis. In particular, critiques of its metaphysical implications and of the view of science implicit in it are provided (section 5). Finally, it is also argued that the thesis contains a grain of truth and as such a moderate interpretation of it could be defended (section 6). The main findings are summarized in the conclusion (section 7).
References
Arnold, Thomas, 2018, Phänomenologie als Platonismus. Zu den Platonischen Wesensmomenten der Philosophie Edmund Husserls, De Gruyter, Berlin/Boston.
Cath, Yuri, 2011, “Metaphilosophy”, in Pritchard, Duncan, ed. Oxford Bibliographies Online: Philosophy, Oxford University Press, New York.
Cusinato, Guido, 2018, Biosemiotica e psicopatologia dell’ordo amoris. In dialogo con Max Scheler, FrancoAngeli, Milano.
Geiger, Moritz, 1933, “Alexander Pfänders methodische Stellung”, in Heller, Ernst and Löw, Friedrich, eds. Neue Münchener Philosophische Abhandlungen, Johann Ambrosius Barth, Leipzig: 1-16.
Geldsetzer, Lutz, 1974, “Metaphilosophie als Metaphysik: Zur Hermeneutik der Bestimmung der Philosophie”, in Zeitschrift für allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie / Journal for General Philosophy of Science, 5, 2: 247-255.
Joll, Nicholas, 2017, “Metaphilosophy”, in Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy <https://iep.utm.edu/con-meta/#H4>.
Kelly, Eugene, 2012, “Max Scheler”, in Luft Sebastian and Overgaard Søren, eds. The Routledge Companion to Phenomenology, Routledge, Oxon-New York: 40-49.
Meyer, Herbert H., 1987, “Max Scheler’s Understanding of the Phenomenological Method”, in International Studies in Philosophy, 19, 1: 21-31.
Mohr, Eric J., 2012, “Phenomenological Intuition and the Problem of Philosophy as Method and Science: Scheler and Husserl”, in Symposium, 16, 2: 218-234.
Overgaard, Søren, Gilbert, Paul, and Burnwood Stephen, 2013, An Introduction to Metaphilosophy, Cambridge University Press, New York.
Overgaard, Søren, 2010, “Royaumont Revisited”, in British Journal for the History of Philosophy, 18, 5: 899-924.
Scheler, Max, 1954, “Vom Wesen der Philosophie und der moralischen Bedingung des philosophischen Erkennens”, in Gesammelte Werke 5, Francke Verlag, Bern-München: 61-99.
Scheler, Max, 1960, “Erkenntnis und Arbeit”, in Gesammelte Werke 8, Francke Verlag, Bern/München.
Scheler, Max, 1973a, Formalism in Ethics and Non-formal Ethics of Values, Evanston, Northwestern University Studies in Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy.
Scheler, Max, 1973b, “The Theory of Three Facts”, in Selected Philosophical Essays, Evanston, Northwestern University Studies in Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy: 202-287.
Scheler, Max,1973c, “The Idols of Self-Knowledge”, in Selected Philosophical Essays, Evanston, Northwestern University Studies in Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy: 3-97.
Scheler, Max, 1973d, “Ordo amoris”, in Selected Philosophical Essays, Evanston, Northwestern University Studies in Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy: 98-135.
Scheler, Max, 1973e, “Phenomenology and the Theory of Cognition”, in Selected Philosophical Essays, Evanston, Northwestern University Studies in Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy: 136-201.
Scheler, Max, 2005, “On the Rehabilitation of Virtue”, in American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly, 79, 1: 21-37.
Scheler, Max, 2008, The Nature of Sympathy, Transaction, New Brunswick.
Scheler, Max, 2010a, “The Nature of Philosophy and the Moral Preconditions of Philosophical Knowledge”, in On the Eternal in Man, Transaction, New Brunswick: 67-104.
Scheler, Max, 2010b, Ressentiment, Marquette University Press, Milwaukee.
Schloßberger, Mathias, 2020, “Max Scheler”, in Szanto, Thomas and Landweer, Hilge, eds. The Routledge Handbook of Phenomenology of Emotion, Routledge, London: 72-86.
Schutz, Alfred, 1957, “Max Scheler’s Epistemology and Ethics”, in The Review of Metaphysics 11, 2: 304-314.
Smith, Barry, 1997, “Realistic Phenomenology”, in Embree, Lester, ed. Encyclopedia of Phenomenology, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht: 586-590.
Snow, Nancy E., 2019, “Intellectual Humility”, in Battaly Heather, ed., The Routledge Handbook of Virtue Epistemology, Routledge, New York: 178-195.
Tanesini, Alessandra, 2018, “Intellectual Humility as Attitude”, in Phenomenology and Phenomenological Research, 96, 2: 399-420.
Vendrell Ferran, Íngrid, 2015, “Pragmatismuskritik und Wertbegriff bei Max Scheler”, in Gabel, Michael and Müller, Matthias, eds. Erkennen – Handeln – Bewähren. Phänomenologie und Pragmatismus, Traugott-Bautz, Nordhausen: 120-134.
Whitcomb, Dennis, Battaly, Heather, Baehr, Jason, and Howard-Snyder, Daniel, 2017, “Intellectual Humility: Owning Our Limitations”, in Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 94, 3: 509-539.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication, with the work five (5) years after publication licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
After five years from first publication, Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.
